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Webmatters : Dunkirk Town Cemetery

Dunkirk Town Cemetery

Location

Dunkirk Town Cemetery is at the south-eastern corner of the town of Dunkerque, immediately south of the canal and on the Route de Furnes, D601 (Veurne in Belgium — the Flemish spelling).

The town cemetery is indicated with car parking signs. Park here and follow the pedestrian signs out of the car park and at the main road follow right along the front of the cemetery for about a hundred metres.

On entering the cemetery through the columns of the Dunkirk Memorial, two Commonwealth war graves sections will be seen: Plots IV and V from the First World War and Plots I and II from the Second World War.

There is also a further First World War section (Plots I, II and III) in the main part of the cemetery to the right of the main entrance.

Note that the civilian cemetery is locked after 1800 hours. Should you be seeking a grave in that sector arrive in time. The Memorial and its plots are open all day.

GPSNEOSM
Decimal51.029662.38796 Map
The Dunkirk Memorial

Historical Information

Dunkirk witnessed the landing of the British Expeditionary Force in September and October 1914. Throughout the First World War it was a seaplane base and later an American Naval Air Service base. The town was also a French hospital centre and the 8th Canadian Stationary Hospital was there from November 1918 to April 1919.

The Dunkirk Memorial

The cemetery with the memorial in the background

Although an estimated 7,500 shells and bombs fell on the town during the war, ship building and other port activities continued.

During the Second World War, Dunkirk was the scene of the historic evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from France in May 1940.

Dunkirk Town Cemetery contains 460 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, ten of them unidentified. The graves are situated in Plots 1 to 3 in the public part of the cemetery to the right of the main entrance, and in Plots 4 and 5 of the Commonwealth War Graves section adjacent to the Dunkirk Memorial.

Of the 793 Second World War burials, 213 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 58 soldiers known to be buried among them. These graves are in Plots 1 and 2 of the section by the Dunkirk Memorial.

Dunkirk Town Cemetery

The French Military Plot within the main cemetery

There are also Czech, Norwegian and Polish war graves within the Commonwealth section, and war graves of other nationalities will be found elsewhere within the cemetery.


Sergeant François Padieu

Caporal François Padieu
Escadrille 8 (8th Squadron French Air Force)
Born 13th June 1895
Entered service 18th December 1914
Died on 19th July 1916 aged 21
One of the fallen from my village
Killed in an accident

Grave: 1092